7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017
Taxes: Governor
wants to ‘set the
table’ for a tax
overhaul in 2019
Continued from Page 1A
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Dale Barrett looks over a map of the Fort Pointe housing development in Warrenton.
Housing: Many apartments are already
fully reserved before they are even open
Continued from Page 1A
“The fact that they’ve had
what we call a reapplication
conference tells me that they
have a significant amount of
interest,” he said.
Fort Pointe, which is
financed by Texas-based 210
Development Group, had ten-
tative approval a decade ago
for 300 lots, Barrett said.
“Because the economy was
starting to go bad, we got
extensions to that, but they
eventually ran out.”
Barrett said the develop-
ment will add about 50 homes
a year, based on the market. He
anticipates tentative approval
in late summer or early fall,
with construction through the
winter.
The housing development project would add 150 homes
and a similar number of apartment units in Warrenton.
Houses galore
On the Clatsop Plains
between Sunset Lake and U.S.
Highway 101, developer Harry
Henke has an 87-lot subdivi-
sion he is calling Reed Ranch,
also known as Westlake Vil-
lage. Henke, who’s worked on
the Astoria Business Park and
housing projects in Seaside,
said road construction on Reed
Ranch begins this month.
Urling said he received an
application for a 74-unit subdi-
vision called Roosevelt being
planned by Warrenton Fiber
and North River Homes south
of the Clatsop County Sher-
iff’s Office and the Nygaard
family’s previous develop-
ment, Forrest Rim, which has
mostly been built out.
Developer Dick Krueger,
who has faced multiple hur-
dles to proposed apartment
complexes in and around Asto-
ria, is moving forward with a
35-house subdivision at a
Lewis and Clark site scheduled
to break ground next month.
Apartments
Urling said there are apart-
ment complexes in the works,
including Forte Point.
Kruger, who previously
developed the Yacht Club and
Mill Pond apartment com-
plexes in Astoria, but who has
faced resistance in subsequent
projects, is planning more than
60 units called the Pacific Rim
Apartment on a plot of land
just east of Clatsop Commu-
nity Action’s Regional Food
Bank.
“I told him our best chance
of getting approval for hous-
the future regional develop-
ment around Warrenton will
be focused around Ridge
Road and south of the Asto-
ria Regional Airport. “Then in
the county, the rest is going to
be down on the plains where
Harry Henke is building,” he
said.
Gramson is beginning util-
ity work on the northern exten-
sion of the Juniper Ridge sub-
division, which he said has
added 125 homes to Warrenton
since it started in the 2000s.
The Fort Pointe develop-
ment also sits atop a sandy
ridge Barrett said was cre-
ated by historical sand accre-
tion and a change in hydrology
caused by the installation of
the Columbia River jetty sys-
tem in the early 20th century.
Of the 300 acres the project
partnership owns, he said, only
70 will be used, reserving the
rest for conservation.
Affordable
development
Utility construction continues on the northern extension
of the Juniper Ridge subdivision in Warrenton.
ing is in Warrenton,” Bar-
rett, a manager for Krueger on
the project, said. “Warrenton
is welcoming him with open
arms, and we felt we could get
him under construction.”
Urling said developer Jason
Palmberg is planning another
apartment complex of a sim-
ilar size to Krueger’s off of
U.S. Highway 101 business
near T.J.’s Auto Repair. Palm-
berg said the increase in apart-
ments is simply a response to
the need.
“The demand for hous-
ing is really high,” he said,
adding many apartments are
fully reserved before they ever
open.
While other developers
have focused on the periphery
of cities, hotel developer and
operator Antoine Simmons is
planning the 37-unit Skipanon
River Apartments at the north-
west corner of First Street and
Skipanon Drive. Another
32-unit apartment complex is
being planned by developer
Joe Barnes near the U.S. Coast
Guard Exchange in Astoria.
Simmons said he was par-
tially motivated to build near
downtown Warrenton by the
city’s openness to develop-
ment and a recent decision to
amend zoning rules and allow
multifamily housing as a con-
ditional use in commercial
areas.
“I’ve been looking and
looking and looking for a
place to build apartments,
because there’s such a pent-up
demand,” Simmons said.
“There’s nothing available in
Seaside, there’s nothing avail-
able in Astoria.”
Cheap land
Development has focused
on high ground in and around
Warrenton, where developers
say they’ve found a more wel-
coming environment and more
buildable land outside of wet-
lands, which can be prohib-
itively expensive to mitigate
and develop.
Will Caplinger, Clatsop
County’s planning manager,
reported 170 lots in the works
outside city limits. He said
developers are often looking
for raw and inexpensive lands
to develop, along with a loca-
tion close to city utilities they
can hook into. In most cases,
that has been Warrenton.
Gil Gramson, a longtime
developer in the area and a
former Warrenton mayor and
city manager, said much of
The price of houses and rent
on apartments coming online
will mostly be dictated by the
market, which has seen signif-
icant increases in demand over
the past several years. Devel-
opers say that creating more
affordable workforce housing
will only be feasible with gov-
ernment support.
“It’s tough,” Simmons said.
“Unless it’s Section 8 and
they’re subsidized or the gov-
ernment’s paying part of the
rent, it’s going to be difficult.”
Innovative Housing Inc., a
Portland nonprofit that refur-
bishes old buildings into work-
force housing, is in its second
90-day due diligence period
on Astoria’s former Waldorf
Hotel, where it plans to cre-
ate 40 one-bedroom and stu-
dio units for people earning 50
to 60 percent of the region’s
median income. The nonprofit
depends on government grants,
tax credits and other means to
help finance build-outs.
Gramson said he doesn’t
know the answer to creat-
ing workforce housing, other
than local assistance to ease
the cost of construction and
permitting.
“The housing authority
has to come up with plans,”
Gramson said. “There’s no
incentive really for builders to
be in that market, because the
cost of building is going up so
fast.”
care providers and insurers,
Courtney, Kotek and Brown
say that they’ll push for cost
containment to make up the
difference.
“ … We have worked for
months with legislators in
both parties, business leaders,
and labor leaders, to identify
ways to reduce state spend-
ing, contain costs going for-
ward, and finally reform our
revenue system,” Brown,
Courtney and Kotek said in
a joint statement Thursday
morning. “While we are mov-
ing forward on several major
cost containment measures,
it has become clear that the
Legislature will not have the
necessary support to achieve
structural revenue reforms
this session.”
Those cost containment
strategies won’t include pro-
posed cutbacks to the Public
Employees Retirement Sys-
tem, a sticking point for many
Republicans.
Some Democrats had
hoped to achieve structural
changes to state taxes on busi-
ness, shifting the basis from
income to sales.
But this week there were
already indications those
ambitions may not come to
fruition.
Lawmakers were consid-
ering alternatives, such as
increasing the existing corpo-
rate income tax, which could
raise $530 million for the next
budget, and narrowing eligi-
bility for a pass through tax
break, which would shore up
nearly $200 million in the
next two years.
Brown said she didn’t
think that a proposal to
increase the corporate income
tax had “traction” in the Ore-
gon House.
And Republicans are
already up in arms about the
other proposal, which Senate
Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli,
R-John Day, dubbed a “tax
heist.”
‘Set the table’
Brown said she wanted to
“set the table” for a tax over-
haul in 2019. She blamed the
rancorous Measure 97 fight
last year for the impasse.
Measure 97, backed by
union groups, would have
taxed certain corporations
with annual Oregon sales of
more than $25 million.
“It is really clear to me, as
I mentioned, that it takes a full
legislative session to vet struc-
tural changes to Oregon’s rev-
enue situation,” Brown told
reporters Thursday. “I think
I would have liked to (have
had) a process leading up to
that. Ballot Measure 97 and
the battle over that prohib-
ited that table or that level of
collaboration.”
A rematch over business
taxes is already shaping up for
the November 2018 ballot.
The state’s largest teach-
ers’ union, the Oregon Edu-
cation Association, is backing
a ballot measure that would
create a gross receipts tax on
businesses with annual sales
of more than $3 million.
House Majority Leader
Jennifer Williamson, D-Port-
land, contended Republicans
were to blame.
Democrats in both the
House and Senate are one
vote shy of the three-fifths
majority required to pass rev-
enue-raising measures, mean-
AP file photo
Gov. Kate Brown speaks
to media representatives
in Salem in January.
ing that if all Democrats were
to vote in favor of revenue
reform, they’d still need one
Republican on board.
“Unfortunately, Republi-
cans have chosen to stand in
the way rather than work col-
laboratively in order to solve
the biggest problems facing
our state,” Williamson said in
a statement. She argued her
caucus had floated proposals
to reduce costs, address the
state’s “broken” revenue sys-
tem and stabilize education
funding.
‘Good faith’
House Minority Leader
Mike McLane, R-Powell
Butte, shot back, arguing that
Republicans had worked “in
good faith.”
“We said before the ses-
sion began that we would
be open to raising revenue if
Democrats were willing to
engage in a serious effort to
grow the economy and con-
trol costs,” McLane said in
a prepared statement. “The
Democrats were not willing
to do that. House Democrats
failed to produce this session
the budget changes needed to
support our communities.”
Hanna Vaandering, pres-
ident of the Oregon Educa-
tion Association, accused
both Republicans and Oregon
businesses of obstruction in a
statement.
“We met with the busi-
ness community nearly 10
times and not once did they
bring forward a long-term,
sustainable solution for our
students,” Vaandering said.
“They said it would be easy
to find common ground, but
instead have spent months
obstructing.”
But Vaandering also said
the Legislature had “ample
time” to pass a bigger revenue
package before the final gavel
falls later this summer.
Business leaders such as a
Brighter Oregon, a coalition
of businesses and business
groups including the Port-
land Business Alliance, were
adamant that their support for
new revenue was contingent
on curtailing the state’s costs,
which the state now appears
poised to do out of necessity.
Jim Green, head of the Ore-
gon School Boards Association,
called Thursday’s announce-
ment “disappointing.”
“Now there will be a lot of
finger-pointing on both sides,
but ultimately this is a failure
by our elected state leaders to
put aside their differences and
do what is needed,” Green
said in a statement. “Instead
of a solution, what we are left
with is a short-term patch.”
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Deur: ‘Oregon is changing. We want parks to be relevant to everybody’
Continued from Page 1A
He’s also a founding mem-
ber of the fundraising group
Friends of Haystack Rock
Awareness Program, the Ecola
Creek Forest Reserve initia-
tive, as well as other environ-
mental groups and movements
in Cannon Beach.
Changing Oregon
Parks and Recreation
Department Associate Direc-
tor Chris Havel said that, while
all of the commissioners share
a deep love of Oregon and the
desire to improve the parks
system within, Deur is notable
for his background as a histo-
rian and anthropologist.
“In Doug’s case, his strong
credentials as a historian fits in
well with the department mis-
sion, with his experience with
national registry, local muse-
ums, and with his role in the
state through recreation and
history,” Havel said. “I think
people who are naturally
drawn to that will find the com-
mission a welcoming place.
State parks have many chal-
lenges before them. While on
the commission, Deur hopes to
address how to bolster infra-
structure better to accommo-
date the influx of traffic at
heavily used parks, such as
Oswald West and Ecola State
Park, as well as look for ways
to improve beach access points
with small land acquisitions.
But most notably, he wants
to use his background to tell
the stories of all Oregonians
and their relationship to the
parks system.
“We need to tell these sto-
ries so we don’t forget that
these parks still mean some-
thing to Native Americans.
Different communities have
different stories associated
with the parks that relate to
their histories,” he said.
One of the most encom-
passing challenges is to figure
out how to keep parks relevant
for a culturally and demo-
graphically changing Oregon,
Havel said.
Most of the growth and
development of state parks
happened between the 1950s
and 1970s, Havel said. Since
then, the demographic and
cultural landscape of Oregon
has changed, leading to usage
changes such as an increase in
day trips rather than overnight
camping.
“In the last five years,
we’ve had increasing visita-
tion every year. We’ve found
it’s many of the same people
visiting more often, maybe not
as diversified as it could be,”
Havel said. “We won’t know
if we are serving every Ore-
gon city until we ask better
questions.”
Deur hopes his background
in cultural studies can help
bridge this gap to encourage
more park access for more
people, he said.
“Oregon is changing. We
want parks to be relevant to
everybody,” Deur said.